Frontier Airlines will boost the number of daily flights from Salt Lake City but will use smaller planes while it waits to hear if Republic Airways Holdings or another carrier will buy the bankrupt airline.

Earlier this week, Republic agreed to pay $108.8 million for Frontier, which currently flies six times a day between Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver, using 136-passenger Airbus A319 jets.

But as it waits to learn its future in bankruptcy court where it sought protection from creditors last year, Frontier is making plans to increase flights to seven a day, starting Sept. 14. Only one flight will be operated with the A319. Frontier subsidiary Lynx Aviation will fly the rest, using 74-seat Bombardier Q400 turbojets, Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder said Thursday.

That could be good news for Southwest Airlines, which competes with Frontier on the Salt Lake City-Denver route. Southwest flies four times a day to Denver International Airport using Boeing 737 jets with 128 seats.

The Republic deal, announced Monday, needs the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, which will hold a hearing July 13.

The sale also hinges on the outcome of a court-supervised auction. Republic will not be allowed to buy Denver-based Frontier if another airline makes a better bid. Auction procedures will also be discussed at the court hearing.

"The [plan] has to be approved by the court first, which is in mid-July,

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and then there is a 30-day auction period when a higher bid could come in," Snyder said.

If the sale is completed, Frontier will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and become a subsidiary of Republic, flying under its own name alongside Republic's subsidiaries -- Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airways and Shuttle America.

Only then will Indianapolis-based Republic look at making changes to Frontier's network of routes.

"It's too early to try to go into that level of detail. There could be higher or better bids for Frontier than ours. So it's quite early," Republic spokesman Carlo Bertolini said.

 

St. George-Los Angeles flight discontinued

SkyWest Airlines will discontinue United Express flights between St. George and Los Angeles in September.

The flights are being discontinued because of weak demand and volatile fuel prices that made the route unprofitable, SkyWest said.

Customers booked on flights after Sept. 1 will have the choice of alternative transportation or refunds.

SkyWest is a subsidiary of St. George-based SkyWest Inc., which also owns Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

SkyWest flies as United Express for United Airlines and as Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines.